Canonical: First Ubuntu smartphones not shipping until 2014

Canonical's founder Mark Shuttlework has announced that Ubuntu phones won't be shipping until the first quarter of 2014, going back on his own word.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this month, he said Ubuntu phones would be shipping in October. That's not now the case.

Shuttleworth clarified on a conference call that while the smartphone-friendly Ubuntu version 13.10 will be available in October for the masses, pre-loaded Ubuntu handsets won't be hitting stores until 2014. It sounds like users will be able to load the OS to their current devices in October.

According to The Verge, Shuttleworth said the devices might be branded and controlled by the carriers, bringing a bit of lockdown to the platform. He also hinted there would be a top manufacturer making both a low and high-end smartphone for release in 2014. Could it be Motorola, HTC, Sony, Samsung, or someone else?

Of course, 2014 seems like a long time to wait. On 21 February, Canonical will be making its operating system available for Google's Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus handsets and Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets for developer testing.

Canonical will be at Mobile World Congress 2013, where we'll be sure to catch up with the company. Pocket-lint will be covering the trade-show in full-force at the end of February.